This invention relates to a refrigerator including a fermenting compartment and a temperature control method therefore, particularly to a refrigerator which detects the temperature, the pH concentration, the CO.sub.2 concentration and the gas pressure of fermented foods inside the food container placed in the fermenting compartment, transmits this detected data to the refrigerator control portion which controls the conditions in the food container in the fermenting compartment according to the data and stores the fermenting foods container thereafter.
In general, as shown FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a refrigerator controls the temperature in the refrigerator by turning on and off a compressor depending on the setting of a thermostat 4. Because a temperature sensing tube 3 is mounted on an evaporator 1 or a refrigerating compartment 2, when the temperature of the evaporator 1 or the refrigerating compartment 2 reaches a predetermined temperature, the compressor stops and the refrigerator also stops.
Over a time period, when the temperature of the evaporator 1 and the refrigerating compartment 2 rises, the pressure in a diaphragm 5 also rises. Accordingly, when the compartment reaches the predetermined temperature, the contact point 6 is moved into contact with the other contact point and the compressor begins to operate. The time required to turn on and off the compressor varies based on strength of an adjustable spring 7. When an user rotates the cam 9 by adjusting the dial handle 8, the position of an adjusting lever 11 is changed. The elastic strength of the adjusting spring 7 varies according to changes in the lever's position, so that its strength is adjusted. The refrigerator described above merely stores foods which have been fermented in another apparatus and it does not include a food fermenting apparatus.
Thus, in order to ferment and store fermented foods such as kimchi (Korean pickled vegetables) in the refrigerator, the refrigerator as described above is provided with a fermenting compartment which includes a door and heaters at the top and the bottom surfaces of the compartment to maintain the proper fermenting temperature. Here, because an insulating wall is provided between the fermenting compartment and the other compartments, the warm air generated in the fermenting compartment does not affect the other compartments. Also, the fermenting compartment includes coolant pipes at the left, right and rear interior walls in order to store the fermented foods after the fermenting process is finished and thus the fermenting compartment is maintained at a storing temperature by circulating the coolant through the pipes.
The refrigerator of FIGS. 1 and 2 is operated at a predetermined temperature without regarding various temperature changes necessary for fermenting and storing foods. Because it takes some time for the thermal energy generated in the fermenting compartment to influence the fermented foods in the storage container, the temperature between the storage container and the fermenting compartment may be different. Therefore, even if the temperature in the fermenting compartment is proper to the fermenting condition, but the temperature in the storage container might not be proper. Due to the above mentioned reason, the fermentation process of the stored foods may not be accurately controlled.
In order to solve the problem, a prior art container including an apparatus detecting the various fermentation conditions is placed in the fermenting compartment of the refrigerator and controls the temperature in the container depending on the detected data.
When that prior art container is used to control the fermenting process and is put in the fermenting compartment after the fermenting process, various data communication lines (hereinafter "lines") between the container and the refrigerator are provided so that the fermentation and storage condition data, for example temperature, hydrogen ion concentration, CO.sub.2 concentration and gas pressure and the like, may be transmitted on the lines to the refrigerator control mechanism.
At this time, the above described prior art container and refrigerator has a disadvantage in that, when the container is moved so that the interior of the refrigerator can be cleaned as necessary, the electrical lines hinder the movement of the container and the cleaning of the refrigerator.
Accordingly, the present invention was invented in order to solve the problems.
One object of the present invention is to enable a refrigerator to detect the fermentation conditions and control accurately the temperature in the storage container according to the detected data.
Another object of the present invention is to supply the refrigerator with an apparatus for radio-communicating data between the container and refrigerator control portion.